A Return to Grace

    Something is missing in the Christianity of today. Just take a look back at the book of Acts and the Christians of ages past, and you will see that there is a significant difference between their lives and ours. Compare the lives of Paul or George Muller to a Christian of today, and there is no comparison. So what has happened? Why is there a difference between them and us? Grace is the key to this problem.  We do not say that grace is not important, but what has happened is that grace has been redefined in our day. In What’s so Amazing About Grace?, Philip Yancey defines grace as the mercy and forgiveness that God shows to us sinners, giving His hug of acceptance to let us know that He loves us just the way we are.

    Here is how Christianity works. God places a standard in front of us that is impossible: to be perfect, to be holy, a slave to righteousness, and dead to sin. It is not enough that the standard sits there towering over us, but God calls us to live up to this impossible standard. We try our best to reach that high standard and fail time and time again in our own strength. Here is where the divide between Christian history and modern Christianity begins. Today there is a consensus that God never intended for us to live that impossible standard. Many say that Jesus lived the perfect life so that you and I would not have to. Now there is some truth in that. Yes, Jesus did come and live the perfect life to be the sacrifice that we could not be, and yes, God never intended for us to  attain His standard of perfection on our own. But what is forgotten is that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice to give us grace, so that by His grace we could live the impossible life.

    So what is grace? Grace is the indwelling power of the Spirit of God to enable us to live according to God’s plan and to carry out his errands on this earth. William Law says it so well, “the purchase of the cross wasn’t mere forgiveness. . . it was Pentecost.” Christ did not shed His blood to just cover over your sin and leave you as a helpless victim of sin. He came to bring you abundant life. By His death we now have the power of God imparted to us to live victoriously for His glory.

    The grace of God brings salvation. For by grace are you saved through faith; and it is not of your own working because it is the gift of God. This salvation is what  the prophets of old searched for diligently and prophesied of this grace that should come unto us through Jesus Christ. Therefore, be strong in grace that is in Jesus Christ, for His grace is sufficient for us, because His strength is made perfect in our weakness. But it is by the grace of God that I am what I am, and His grace is not given to us in vain. For I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I still live; yet it is not I, but Christ that liveth in me.

The Way to Treat The Word of God

The Word of God is one of the most important things that a Christian could have. It is the very words of the Almighty God transcribed by the pens of men. By these very words the worlds were spoken into existence and all things are held together by its power. it is the seed of truth that is planted in our hearts that produces faith unto salvation. It is a sword that is quick and powerful, dividing asunder of soul and spirit and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It is our sustenance and more precious to us than our daily bread. It is without error, 100% true, with kingly authority, relevant to all generations, unchanging, and enduring forever. Men have tried to discredit it, prove is false, burn it, and even threaten and kill those who distribute and read it, and it has continued to prove faithful and true to all generations.

But in our day the authority and integrity of the Word of God is under attack more then ever. Under the guise of Christianity and humility, the postmodern/ emergent church movement is undermining our confidence in the Word of God as a solid foundation. These modern thinkers abandon the facts of the Bible and appeal to our humanity for an emotional response. Their basic premise is that the Word of God adapts and evolves to difference times, cultures, and users. They have come out with new translations and redefined the terms to create their own rendition of Christianity. One that does not require you to make drastic changes to your life and that does not offend the culture of today. Because they are changing and redefining the Word of God, the solid rock that we stand on and have confidence is being turned into jello-like foundation. They are compromising the integrity of Christianity, the Bible, the Gospel, and the very nature of God Himself under our very noses.

We must rise up and defend the Word of God at all costs. These men have crept in and, with no sense of reverence, sought to change God and His Word. It is time we said “ENOUGH!” You mess with the deity, authority, and integrity of the Word of God in text, and you are messing with the deity, authority, and integrity of the very person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Word made flesh; they are one and the same. To attack one is to attack the other. We do not seek to define God on our own terms because God defines Himself. He is Righteous and Holy. He never lies and always keeps His promises. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in Him is no shadow of turning. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. This is our God! Whatever He says to do, we come under His authority obey Him. We are to study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not to be ashamed, so that we may rightly divide the word of truth with all reverence and holy fear. We must do all that is in our power and be ready lay down our lives, if need be, to uphold the integrity and authenticity of the Word of God.

Fortification: Made Strong to Pour Out

Our lives are under constant attack. We have a wall that surrounds us and blocks the enemy’s attacks, but the enemy is always looking for ways to harass us and take our focus off of God. He uses cunning and deceit to find an access point. He is smart enough not to waste his time attacking the strong part of the wall when he could find a weakness in our defenses and exploit it. These weakness, holes, gaps, or breeches give him the opportunity to harass, sabotage, destroy, and deceive us. If we are to serve Christ effectively these breeches must be repaired and our walls made strong. Most Christians agree up to this point, our lives are under attack and we need to have our “walls repaired” so that we are not open to the assaults of the enemy, but it is what happens next that devision begins. Once the wall has been repaired, what are we supposed to do?

Many Christians believe that we are delivered from the enemy’s attacks so that we could live healthy, wealthily, and prosperous lives. They expect to experience no hardships or difficulties, no trials or pain. They are confused of what fortification really is. They think that all pain and difficulties are from the enemy and that God only brings love and prosperity. But the truth is that there are two kinds of pain, enemy pain and God pain. The pain that the enemy brings darkness, confusion, disease, condemnation, abuse, lies, and death. God pain is the good kind of pain like being sore after exercising or birthing pain. It brings light, strength, truth, healing, and life. Once we have identified what is from the enemy and what is from God, we now know what we must resist and what to allow.

We are fortified, not that our lives may be sheltered for our own selfish desires, but so that we are made strong to pour out. Christ fortifies us so that we can turn outward and serve those in need, instead of constantly trying to ward off the enemy attacks. For far too long Christians have adopted a defensive battle strategy, to be inward focused, how to keep their lives from falling apart. We are called to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. We are to be the deliverer of the poor, eyes for the blind, feet to the lame, the protecter of the orphan and widow, and to rescue the defenseless from the jaws of the wicked. As Christians we should be on the offensive, not just waiting to repel the attacks of the enemy, but to always our swords at the ready to storm the very gates of hell to rescue the lost off it’s doorstep. That is what we are fortified for, we are made strong to pour out our lives in service to our king. We are to always be ready to go and fight and lay our lives down for the cause of heaven, for to live is Christ and to die is gain.

The Body

All things are created with a reason and purpose. the sun has made to light and warm the earth. the air was made to breathe and provide life to all living things. Food was made to provide nourishment. but what was the human body and life made for? we were created for one purpose: to bring God glory. how? we are called to be holy, yielded, instruments of righteousness, givers of praise and worship, and the body of christ here on this earth.

but there is a problem, there is a controlling force in our life called the flesh. the flesh’s agenda is simple, to seek it’s own pleasures and anything that contradicts that is quashed. we are bound in this body of sin, we look around and see the flesh reeking havoc in our lives and realize that we are not fulfilling our designed purpose. “Hey flesh!” we cry, “Look at what you are doing to my life, it’s a mess!” we then timidly suggest. “do you think you could quiet down a little, maybe take a shower, and clean up some of this mess?” “What do you think you’re doing?” the flesh growls, “I’m gonna do whatever I want and you cannot do anything about it, Ha!” we try to get up and reason with flesh to talk some sense into him and teach him some manners, just who does he think he...ungh! what’s going on!? why can’t I stand up? we then realize that the flesh has duct-taped us to a chair in the corner and try as we might we cannot seem get loose. we look around in fearful horror as we watch the flesh continuing on his destructive rampage laughing maniacally the whole time. we begin to see that the damage to our life is much more extensive then we first thought. “Stop!” we cry, as the support of our life starts to give way, “please stop! I’m telling you to stop!” the flesh monetarily pauses and glares at us with a crazy grin smeared across his face, “and if I don’t stop, what are you going to do about it?” he laughs again and turns again to his carnage. with a new realization of the servility and seriousness of our condition, we cry out for help. “Help! I’m tied to a chair I can’t do anything! my life crumbling! I need a rescuer! I need someone to get rid of the flesh! Oh who can save me from this body of sin!”

In an instant, our savior Jesus Christ is at our side and sets us free. the flesh cries out “ hey! you can’t do that! I’m the one in charge here! I have the right to run this life however I want!” then our Intercessor looks the flesh square in the eye and with the voice that shakes the heavens proclaims “I am now the absolute ruler of this life, my Word is truth and law. At my name every creature will bend their knee and confess that I am Lord!” and with that, the Mighty God grabs the flesh and hurls him out. then the Redeemer turns and gently says to us, “I set you free so that you can serve me. If the flesh tries to return, rebuke him in my name and he can’t stay. I must have complete control over every area of your life. the parts of you life the have previously been mishandled and abused, I will repair them and teach you how they were originally designed for, to serve, honor, worship, and glorify me, the Lord of lords, King of kings, and the master of your soul.”

About Scripture

For the next couple weeks I'll be posting some of my class work for you all to read. It's coming from summaries of sessions here at Ellerslie, but the content is such that it's beneficial regardless if you have heard the sessions or not. This week's entry is talking about scripture, the divinely inspired Word of God. All of scripture pertains to Jesus Christ. On the surface it may not appear to be so, but because of the many layers that scripture has, every page reflects the person and nature of Jesus. If we read the Bible as we would any other book, we will only see the obvious facts. But if we humble ourselves before the Spirit of God and ask for spiritual understanding, the Holy Spirit will give us spiritual eyes so that we may troll the depths of scripture. Why? So that we may know the goodness and riches that are in the person of Jesus Christ.

Many people view the Bible as a book of good moral teaching, historical stories, and ancient poetry, but Scripture is much more than that. The Word of God is more than the words of men, it is the divinely inspired account of God’s agenda of redemption on this earth through the person of Jesus Christ. From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, all of scripture tells of the person and nature of God. The problem when the world looks at the Bible is that they only look at the text as a work of literature. They see words, sentences, paragraphs, grammar, logical thoughts, metaphors, stories, and characters, they can only see the superficial layer of Scripture. One of the things that the world cannot understand is that the Word of God has an infinite number of layers. We cannot find these layers on our own, only when the Spirit of God gives us spiritual eyes and understanding can we then troll the depths of Scripture. As we go deeper, we see more and more of Jesus and we see that He is the key to unlock the Scriptures. In Luke 24, Christ told His disciples“. . . O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Though Christ may not be explicitly mentioned, all of scripture pertains to His nature and person. As an example, there are multiple stories showing the battle between the Flesh and the Spirit. Esau vs. Jacob. Saul vs. David. Ishmael vs. Isaac. First born vs. second born. First Adam vs. second Adam. All of these reveal the war between the two Kingdoms of Flesh and Spirit and show us a picture of the spiritual realm. It shows us that we naturally desire the first born, which is the Flesh, and it is our natural default to have the Flesh controlling our lives. With the Flesh on the throne we are slaves to its sinful desires. And then one day something happens, the grace of God opens our eyes and we see the second born, which is the Spirit. Now the flesh is always at enmity with the Spirit and through the Flesh’s eyes the Spirit seems weak, strange, foolish, and unappealing. But once grace starts its work, we begin to esteem and long for the things of the spirit. We try to reach out for it and find out that the Flesh is fighting to remain in control and keep us from the Spirit. What is needed is for us to come to the end of ourselves and realize that the Flesh must go, but find out that we cannot get rid of it by ourselves. We need help to dethrone the Flesh. We need an Intercessor to fight for us, and that intercessor is Jesus Christ, He is the one who came to conquer the Flesh and give us new life, a life controlled by the Spirit. All of this is exemplified through stories from the Old Testament, explained in the New, but the key to it all is Jesus Christ.

Obsessed - Stephen Manley

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